On the Fly

On The Fly!

I've never really done this with any success. Sunday my friend's family threw a party for her birthday. It was family function but they invited Neil and I as well. I planned to wear one of my favorite dresses (I've had it for 7 years now), normally when I wear this dress I wear the pair of earrings featured in Layers that I've had for [about 10] years and rewired because they had become tarnished. But Sunday I decided to make a pair of earrings to wear to the party ... just an hour or so away.

I opened my box of beads and realized I had several shades of blue, most of which are in my dress. So for about a 30 minutes I played around with settings and chain and findings to get it just right. And with just a few minutes to spare I ended up with these.

I like that the beads are different shapes and sizes, and the lengths are different as well. You may notice I do that a lot in my designs.

Once we arrived at the party Shirley, my friend and neighbor told all of her granddaughters that I make earrings,

"Really?"

"Yes, in fact I just made these!"

I tried this once before, I made a pink and white pair that I never bothered to put up because I really didn't think they were any good. I wore pink and black from head to toe one day and wanted some pink earrings but didn't have any black beads at the time. I wore them on the day and just shoved them aside, I think they're still in tact but I don't even think about wearing them again.

But these are a different story. Grant it you'd have to have a dress like mine to make it work. Or maybe you just like the colors, or have an outfit with the same blue, grey and black combination. Whatever the situation is, if you'd like a pair of these just give me a shout.

Throwback

Throw back

Last I week I shared pictures of a pair I was working on; orange and yellow hoops with an oval bead in the center. Unfortunately, when I perfected the first one and went to make the second I didn’t have enough beads. Beads like those are irregular (actually I find all beads are irregular), so I made the first one but when I tried to make the second the beads that were left would not fit on the wire. Maybe I’ll try again with smaller gauge wire later.

After I made that one I moved on to this pair. It seems a bit retro to me. I don’t know why but whenever I see brown and wooden beads it reminds me of the 70’s. There are 44 brown beads around the hoop, with a round wooden bead dangling from the center. The earring is attached to fish hooks, I don’t think it would look right on a kidney wire. The earrings have a diameter of ­­­­an inch and will ­­­­an inch and a half from the ear.

I’m going to keep working on hoop designs. I have several half made earrings so it’s just a matter of perfecting them and then making the second one.

£4.75 including UK shipping, $8.75 including US shipping.

Experimenting

Experiementing
 

I had no idea what I was going to do! Monday came around and I was lost as to what I would do for this week. So far this year I have been more productive than in previous years but that is resulting in periodic designer’s block. Monday night while lying in bed trying to get back to sleep I thought about hoops.

 

I like making dangly earrings (thus the name of the blog) but there’s no reason why hoops can’t be dangles. The main problem is making them so I started experimenting yesterday. It needs more work so here’s a peak at what’s going on. Hopefully by next week I will have it perfected and maybe more than one pair to show for it.

Keep your fingers crossed!

 

How 'bout a beer?

Sea Glass - Beer bottles

 

I used to go to a friend’s house to hang out and he had a bottle opener that exclaimed that phrase. Another friend loved it so much he used to say it all the time. Maybe it’s from a movie or something, I don’t know. But looking at the last pair in the collection I’d think sea glass this color would have come from a beer bottle.

 

These oblong light brown glass beads are wrapped in non-tarnish wire and fitted with silver-plated fish hooks. The beads are also triangular which was a bit difficult to wrap. They hang just under an inch and a half from the ear and since they are larger will probably be a bit heavier than the other earrings in the collection.

 

I hope you enjoyed our visit to the sea side. I've always enjoyed looking out for shells at the beach but Neil has turned me on to sea glass too. So the next time you’re on the beach or on a river bank keep an eye out for one of those gems. And try to figure out what it would have been when it first went into the water.

£4.00 including UK shipping or $8.15 including US shipping

P.S. I have added a reviews section to the Facebook page so please leave a review of your purchase and if possible pictures. Thanks!